


A New Age

by GinnieHazel



Category: Bones (TV), Fringe (TV)
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Case Fic, Crossover, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-06
Updated: 2017-01-01
Packaged: 2018-07-29 18:42:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 7,557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7695226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GinnieHazel/pseuds/GinnieHazel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Fringe Division and the Jeffersonian team end up on the same case when a secret lab is discovered, and Zach and Booth find themselves suddenly younger.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> This is a story I'm coming back to after a while, so don't hold your breath for updates.

Dr. Mark Bejarano inserted the blood slide into the microscope and looked through the eye piece, adjusting it slightly to get a clearer image.

He sighed. Definitely leukemia. Still, she’d be perfect for the study, that was something.

Mark felt a sudden wetness down the back of his neck and wiped at it with his hand. Water. The ceiling was sagging with the damp. It dribbled down the wall beside him and was pooling on the floor. He sighed. What a dump. They’d only been renting the lab for two months and already it was falling apart.

He’d already called the plumber but god knows when they would get there and it had gotten so much worse since he came in to work an hour ago.

After grabbing a small pocket knife, Mark pulled a chair to the side of the room and climbed atop it. He reached for the stained ceiling and sliced away a section in the middle, only to flinch when a sudden torrent of water doused him. He shook off his hands and reached into the still trickling hole.

A pipe had come out of place. Nothing he could do without turning the water off. He’d have to get a bucket first. He swore and wiped sopping hair away from his forehead.

He stepped off and let gravity pull him down but his foot hit the floor and carried on, slipping out from under him. He dropped his knife and grabbed for the chair back but missed, arms flying to stop his fall, and hit the damaged wall full force.

Head throbbing from the impact, it took him a few seconds to realize his fist had gone through.

That was just perfect. Mark gently pulled his arm free of the hole, cradling his blooded hand. Blood, cuts, but it didn’t feel like he’d broken anything. Not bone, anyway. He looked at the wall and cringed.

He poked at the hole with his uninjured hand and brought his head down so it was at eye level.

Dr. Bejarano saw empty eye sockets staring back at him and gasped.


	2. Chapter 1

“You and your squints are going to like this, Bones.” Booth shook his head and turned his car left into the parking lot.

“Investigating a crime scene in a lab is something you think we’d enjoy? And don’t call me Bones.”

Zach lent forward in the back seat. “The lab at the Jeffersonian is one of the most advanced in this country.”

Booth groaned. “I didn’t mean… You know what, never mind. I just thought you’d feel at home in a squint habitat.” He pulled into a parking space alongside a squad car and took a long look out the window at the dreary building looming over them.

One thing was certain, it didn’t look like the Jeffersonian. For a building so imposing it was squat. The concrete surfacing had come away in slabs and the mortar between the read bricks underneath was cracked, as if the walls were about to give in under their own weight. It was ugly.

Booth got out and waited for the two scientists to gather their equipment, evidence bags and the camera.

Dr. Brennan set off for the main entrance, Booth and Zach trailing behind her. “How many bodies?”

“Three. Two in the main room and one in the back. First officer on the scene said they looked like mummies, sitting up in their chairs and everything. Creepy.” He shuddered.

Booth pulled the crime scene tape up to let Dr Brennan walk under and dropped it in front of Zach, who frowned and ducked under.

“Have the bodies been touched?” They walked through the hallways, passed police officers and a CSI with overalls and some kind of circular saw.

“They were sealed off in some kind of secret room. CSIs have only done a preliminary look around.”

They came to the wall that had been broken through. A rectangular section had been cut out and the pipes patched to stop the leaking. Dr. Brennan stepped over the rim of the hole and found herself in a dusty lab. That wasn’t what interested her, though, because sitting on a swiveling chair, facing a bulky computer next to a still rumbling fume hood, sat the desiccated remains of a man. His chin was resting on his chest, his hands on the desk. He looked as though he had fallen asleep for a moment, then dried.

Booths steps where quiet behind her. “How does that happen to a guy?”

Dr. Brennan looked round at him. He was standing over another body, this one dressed in womens clothes and lying on the floor. He had his jacket swept back, thumbs in his belt.

“If the extractor fan in the hood has been on since they died it would dry out the flesh.”

“There aren’t any chemicals,” Zach said from the doorway.

Temperance nodded. “Maybe they forgot to turn the fan off after they finished with it? If they hadn’t died they’d have done it eventually.” She peered at the sitting man’s face. “There doesn’t seem to be any obvious cause of death, but I’ll know more when I can have a proper look at their bones. Zach, I want you to take photographs of the bodies.”

Zach raised the camera and flashed away, first at the woman on the floor and then the man in the chair.

Dr. Brennan gestured to a CSI near the opening. “Can you help me turn her over?”

Booth turned away from them, still a bit weirded out by Dr Brennan’s cavalier attitude to getting up close and personal with the dead. Zach stepped past him to go into the other room, camera held in front of his chest like a shield.

Booth followed him. Maybe there was something in there that was more his area?

What he saw almost made him wretch. This must have been where they kept the lab animals. With no one to feed them they’d died in their cages, left in there to decompose. Thankfully, time had dampened the smell.

The camera flash brought him out of it. He turned to where Zach was standing with another one of the CSIs, looking at the last body propped up against a glass tank in the corner. “What the hell were they doing in here?”

“Rhesus monkeys are often used as an analog for humans when we’re studying their immune system. In Forensic Anthropology we usually use pigs.”

“We barely have the budget for hot dogs.” The CSI rolled his eyes and nudged past Zach to get a closer look at the body. He was a little shorter than Booth and maybe two decades older.

“We’re not exactly rolling in funding at the FBI, buddy.” Booth shrugged his shoulders and straightened his jacket.

The CSI chuckled. “Yeah, sure.”

Zach was watching them, looking confused. “I don’t know what’s going on.” He glanced from one to the other and went to take a step back.

Booth didn’t see what happened at the time. All he knew was that Zach stumbled and grabbed the arm of the CSI, who tipped forward and went crashing into the glass tank and knocked loose a compressed air cylinder. He later found out that the CSI had stood on Zach’s pant leg, but it didn’t really matter what caused it. It mattered what happened next.

The cylinder fell, hitting the floor with a resounding clang and knocking the fixture with enough force that it broke. It took off like a rocket, propelled by the escape of the pressurised gasses, and ricocheted off the floor and into the ceiling where it got lodged in the cheap suspended tiles, hissing ferociously. Behind it, it left a plume of musty smelling powder that made Booth gag and wheeze.

He threw an arm over his face and tried to breath through his sleeve. His eyes where stinging, tears pouring down his cheeks. Booth stumbled towards where he thought the door might be, where he could hear other people shouting in surprise and panic, throwing his hand out until it collided with something soft and gasping.

He gripped what ever it was and pushed forward, not realizing until he felt the camera bashing against his knuckles that the warm mass was Zach.

He didn’t even think about the CSI till they where clambering through the improvised doorway, but by then it was too late to try and find him.

The room was a rush of activity and Booth had barely gotten his barrings before water was being thrown over them. His sight began to clear and when he brushed the water away from his face he was confronted with Bones holding what looked suspiciously like a garden hose attached to a tap, a dust mask held over her face with one hand.

“We need to get you decontaminated! If it was a biological agent every second could make a difference.” She pressed the hose into his hand. “I’m going to go outside and wait for the hazmat team. I need you and Zach to strip and get as clean as you can, then follow me. Can you do that?”

Booth wrapped his arm around Zach’s shoulders to keep the younger man upright and nodded, holding the hose above their heads as Brennan went for the door looking guilty.

Zach pushed away from him to stand upright and unzipped his jacket. “This sucks,” he said, his voice rasping and weak.

“Showering with a squint! If I knew today was going to be like this I would’ve pretended to be sick.” Booth pulled at the knot of his tie with a grunt.

* * *

 

Agent Olivia Dunham hung up her phone as she marched into Dr Bishop’s lab underneath Harvard University.

“Dr Bishop? We have a case. Washington D.C. If we can get to the airport in the next hour we can get a non-stop flight and be there before nightfall. What are you doing?”

It had taken her a second to spot the older man, and for the life of her she couldn’t figure out what he was doing.

“Good morning, Agent Dunham!” He was pouring some kind of thick, white liquid into a gunge filled beaker, stirring it constantly.

Peter stepped out of the office. “The case?”

“A hidden lab was discovered in D.C., several dead and some abandoned experiments that might be connected to the pattern.”

“I’ll put mine and dads bags in the car. He sent Astrid out for a coconut.”

“A coconut?”

“Oh yes.” Walter poured the mixture in the beaker into another bubbling over a Bunsen burner. “Tapioca! It’s always better with coconut milk but I didn’t want to hurt Gene’s feelings so I thought I might give coconut shavings a try.

“You know, Tapioca has always made me think of when we used to give Peter baths at a child.”

She waited a second for the rest of the story, not daring to ask.

Peter sighed. “How on earth…?”

“The texture. When you were little, you used to like to poop in the bath tub.” He scraped a drip from the end of the stirrer. “Would you like some?”

She grimaced. “I’ll be in the car.”

* * *

 

The lab was quiet this time of day; almost everyone had gone home. This was when Dr. Brennan liked it the best. It was peaceful.

“What happened!” Angela marched towards her, arms folded over her chest.

Okay, not always peaceful.

“You go out on a normal case and the next thing I know people are talking about toxic chemicals and decontamination. Why didn’t you call me, Sweety?” 

“Zack and Booth were exposed to an unknown chemical but they weren’t showing any ill effects, and Hodgens is going to do a full analysis tomorrow when we’ve all had some sleep. I’m sorry, I should have called you. I didn’t know you were worrying.”

Angela’s shoulders slumped. “I always worry.” She lent forward and hugged Brennan. “Do you want to talk about it? Go get some food?”

“No.” She gave Angela a small smile. “I thought I might settle in and do some work on my manuscript.”

“Should I bring you some coffee? Hot Chocolate?”

“Hot chocolate would be nice.”

“Okay, but I’m off home after that.” Angela smiled and headed to the break room.

* * *

 

Agent Booth sighed as he shuffled through the door of his apartment and dumped the keys on the table by the door. His hair was still wet and he’d had to change into a set of the scrubs that they usually gave to suspects when they took their clothes.

God, he just wanted a beer.

He headed into the bedroom to grab a T-shirt and jeans, and pulled out his phone. The number was third on his speed dial.

“Hello?”

“Rebecca?” This always sucked. “I just… I just need to talk to Parker. Hear his voice.”

“Do you know how late it is?”

“I know. Look… I’ve one hell of a crappy day and I just want to talk to my son.”

“He’s already asleep. You can talk to him on your weekend.”

Booth pulled a T-shirt from his closet and rubbed his brow. “I know, I just… Yeah.”

She sighed. “If you call tomorrow after he gets home from school I’ll put him on, but you’ll owe me.”

He smiled. “Times like this I remember why we got together.”

“Don’t get any funny ideas.”

She hung up.

Booth grabbed a pair of track pants, feeling suddenly better. He changed quickly and went to the kitchen to grab a beer. He grabbed the bottle opener and settled into his easy chair.

He was asleep before he took the first swig, the bottle bouncing on the carpet.

* * *

 

The windscreen wipers had a squeak.

Zack rubbed his forehead. It ached. Like someone was driving a spike through his sinuses from the inside out.

Hodgins clicked on the radio.

“Please turn that off…”

“Dude, I always listen to this. It’s not even ten minutes till we get home, anyway.”

He doubled over, one hand clutched in his hair. “Hodgins, please!”

Jack glanced over. “You okay buddy? You don’t look too good?”

“My head! I feel like I’m gonna throw up.”

“Well don’t do it in my car.” He reached round and pressed his hand against Zack’s forehead. “Wow, you’re burning up. I’m taking you to A&E.”

“No, please.” Zack lent his head against the cool passenger window. “Just take me home?”

Hodgins examined him, taking his eyes off the road for far too long, as far as Zack was concerned.

“Are you sure? I won’t think any less of you, you know.”

Zack looked quizzical. “Why would you?”

“No reason.”

He was quiet for a few seconds. “I just want to go home.”

“Fine.” Hodgins sighed. “But I’m staying in the spare room tonight. The last thing I need is you dieing above my garage.”


	3. Chapter 2

When Seeley Booth woke up the next morning it was with a smile and a sigh. The alarm clock was 14 minutes away from going off and this was the first time in at least a month he’d woken this early.

He switched the alarm off and threw back the blankets, jumped out of bed with more energy than he’d felt in years, and figured he’d get a few reps in before breakfast.

After he’d eaten he had a quick shower, then glanced in the mirror and stopped.

He ran his fingertips over his forehead, and over where his smile lines used to be. If it didn’t sound so stupid, he’d swear he looked younger. What the heck were they making in that lab?

Whatever. He’d find out what was up when he popped in to see the nerd squad.

Agent Booth headed over to the Jeffersonian with a brief stop over at the FBI headquarters to pick up whatever files they’d managed to put together on the secret lab.

When he walked into the medico-legal lab, it took him a second or two to realise that the place was practically empty.

“Hello?” He didn’t notice before how much this place echoed.

He turned toward the sound of a pair of shoes clattering down the stairs from the Mezzanine.

“It’s about time you showed up.” Angela crossed her arms and gave him a sardonic look. “Hodgins is about ten minutes away from marching down to the FBI building and demanding answers, and for once I’d be right behind him.”

“What did I do?”

Angela gave him a long look and seamed to relent a bit. “It’s something you have to see for yourself, but it looks like it might have affected you as well.”

Now that was worrying…

He followed her up the stairs and stopped when he saw the three people sitting in the lounge. Hodgins and Brennan were sitting on either side of a child dressed in a mishmash of clothing that didn’t fit, maybe 8 or 9, talking to each other in hushed voices.

The kid looked at him and Booth realised with a jolt that it was Zack. He didn’t know how it was even possible, but it was him, he just knew.

Angela went to join them and Hodgins looked up.

“What the hell were they working on in that lab?” he yelled, marching towards the FBI agent and leaning into his personal space. “Some secret, covert experiment to-”

“Look, simmer down, Hodgins! I know about as much as you do. Now, what the hell is going on?”

“The powder you were exposed to seems to have had a physiological effect.” Brennan had come over and was looking at his face like a skull on her table. “I think your suborbital arches are less developed than I remember,” she reached out too him, “Have your wisdom teeth erupted yet?”

He slapped her groping hands. “Do you mind! Go play with your assistant.”

“But I’ve already taken x-rays of Zack. How old are you?”

“Bones, you don’t just ask people that.”

“Why not?”

Angela flopped down on the sofa next to Zack. “Come on, Both. It’s not like it’s not relevant.”

“Fine.” He ran his hand through his hair. “I’m 36.”

“12 years older than Zack,” Brennan wandered back towards the group, “And if you’ve been affected to the same extent then that would put you at about 20. It’s less noticeable but it’s there. I still think you should let me look at your teeth.”

“Don’t you have science to be doing? What about the bodies from the lab?”

“They haven’t turned up.”

“What did I tell you, government conspiracy!”

Booth pinched the bridge of his noes. “It’s not a conspiracy, Hodgins. It’s probably just a screw up, I’ll look into it. Try to find out if anyone knows what they were working on while I’m there, they haven’t given me anything so far.”

“Dr Brennan?”

They all looked round at the little kid slouched on the sofa.

“If I look like I’m a child, will they still let me work at the Jeffersonian?”

“Why wouldn’t they?” Brennan looked confused. “How you look doesn’t impact how you do your job.”

“Might need a step to stand on,” Angela laughed.

“Are we all ignoring the obvious?” Hodgins was getting shrill. “The powers that be have already disappeared three bodies, how do we know they’re not going to stick Zack in some government facility somewhere?”

“I’m not even going to answer that. I’m going now. You coming, Bones?”

Zack stood. “Can I come?”

“No.” Booth didn’t even turn to face him, just heading to the entrance knowing Brennan would follow.

“And what are we meant to be doing while you guys are storming the federal building?”

Brennan looked over at Zack. “Could you get him some clothes? He doesn’t have any shoes.”

“Angela? Do you wanna come cloth our munchkin?”

“When can I ever resist shoe shopping?”

* * *

 

“Please, Bones, just let me do the talking.” Booth knew as soon as they got out of the car that this was going to go badly. Brennan was walking like she was on a mission, eyes straight, high heals clacking on the concrete.

“I’m fully capable of talking for myself booth.”

“Yeah, but just let me do the talking.”

They walked through the building shoulder to shoulder.

Booth smiled at the young receptionist sitting in the outer office of the Deputy Director. “Hey, Lucy, is he able to see us?”

She stood up, looking panicked, and when he heard the door open behind him he realised that Bones wasn’t bothering with the social niceties.

“Bones!” He rushed after her just in time to hear her interrupt whatever meeting was going on in the next room.

“What happened to my assistant and where are my bones?”

Booth stood behind her, cringing a little with his hands on his hips, and took in the scene. Deputy Director Cullen was leaning back in his chair, frowning at the agent and the scientist, obviously not impressed, but Booths attention zeroed in on the other man in the room.

He was a dark skinned black man with cheek bones so sharp they made his face look almost gaunt. He had turned slowly to watch this new development but didn’t show any surprise, one ankle on the other knee and one arched eyebrow held high. He looked like a man who never smiled. Didn’t even know how.

“It’s always interesting to see you, Dr Brennan.” Deputy Director Cullen sighed and stood. “Agent Booth, Doctor, I’d like you to meet Special Agent-in-Charge, Philip Broyles. He’s from homeland security, come to read you in on the ongoing investigation you’ve stumbled into.”

The man, Philip Broyles, stood to shake Booths hand and offered to Brennen, who didn’t seem to notice.

“Now, if you’ll excuse me,” Agent Cullen stood, “Apparently, I’m not included in this meeting.” He left the three of them in his office, closing the door behind him.

Broyles offered the two newcomers a seat, but neither took him up on the offer.

“Where are my remains?” Dr Brennan asked without preamble. Booth just shrugged to the other agent.

“The lab was sealed off at my direction until we could get our scientist out to the site. That was before we had a full grasp of the situation,” His eyes met Booths, “I’d like me team to go over the scene before the remains are moved.”

Booth got the feeling refusing wasn’t really an option.

“If they’re going to be examining the body I want to be there. I don’t want them damaging the remains. Will you be setting up at the Jeffersonian?”

Broyles gave her a curious look. “I think you misunderstand me. I’ve given my agents orders to bring Agent Booth, Zack Addy, and any evidence they collect back to our lab in Boston. I don’t know if you’ve been told, but we’ve already had one fatality and I’d like to prevent any further deaths.”

“Who died?” That got Brennan’s attention.

“The CSI who was exposed at the scene passed away late last night.”

“Look, I’m all for inter-agency cooperation and not dying, but don’t we get a say in it? I’d like to at least know what’s going on before I follow you out of the state.”

“And Hodgins and I won’t let you take Zack without a convincing explanation.”

Broyles gave them a hard look. “What happened to you, Agent Booth, isn’t an isolated event. We’ve been seeing more cases like this in the last few years and the Fringe Devision was formed to investigate these phenomena.”

Booth shrugged. “Well, fact is, if you want to get to the bottom of this then you’d do well to use the Jeffersonian team. They’re good.”

Agent Broyles picked up his coat from the back of the chair and shrugged it on. “I’ll pass your sentiments on to my team. If they decide to include you in the investigation then I won’t intervene, but both of you need to remember that cooperation is in your best interests.” He opened the office door. “Agent Dunham will be contacting you within the hour. If you want to make your case, that’s as good a chance as you’re going to get.”

With that the agent was gone.

* * *

 

Zack still hadn’t gotten used to the shift in point of view. Everything looked taller, like going back to your elementary school but in reverse.

And people kept touching him. Hodgins guided him with a hand at his back, Dr Brennan put her arm around him, and Angela was running her hand through his hair right now. It was weird.

“Hey, we’ll figure this out sweetie. I’m sure they can fix this.” Angela was talking to him like she always did though, but Zack wasn’t sure what that meant.

“And I’m sure they do this all the time. Imagine what you could do with this technology! Assassins who would be above suspicion, what’s effectively immortality for the oligarchy! What do you want to bet this all gets brushed under the rug?”

“Your paranoia is showing, Hodgins.”

He started to answer but stopped when they heard the main door to the lab open. Angela leapt up to look over the railing and Zack followed. Hodgins stood on his other side, arms crossed.

There were three people bellow them, two men, one old and one young, and a woman in a black suit.

“Hello?” The woman was examining the room, searching it for people.

Hodgins started walking towards the stairs. “Up here.”

Zack went to follow him but was stopped by Angela’s hand on his shoulder.

The woman took a badge like Booths out of her pocket. “Agent Dunham, FBI. I’m looking for Zack Addy?”

Hodgins backed away from the stairs, shaking his head. “No. No way.” He took Zack by the wrist and started down the stairs. “If you’re going to come into our workplace disappearing people, you’re going to have to go through me to do it!”

Zack followed him as he marched past the agent and out the automatic doors, turning to see Angela following them with her coat over her arm.

* * *

 

Dr Brennan and Agent Booth got into the standard issue black SUV; Brennan strapped herself in and Booth just gripped the steering wheel, twisting and throttling, and grinding his teeth.

“You’re angry. You should let me drive.”

“I’m not angry!” He pushed back in the chair and growled. “I just… It just pisses me off when people think they can just tell us what to do; just order us around.”

“I get it, you need to be in control and display your dominance.”

“I don’t need to be in control, Bones,” He yanked on the seat belt a little too roughly and snapped it into place. “I just really prefer it when I have some say in what’s going on.”

“You do have a say. You said you weren’t going with them.”

Booth sighed. “Yeah.” He put the car into gear and set off onto the road.

Brennan opened her mouth to speak but paused when Booths phone started ringing. “You shouldn’t talk on the phone while you’re driving.”

He ignored her and flipped it open. “Booth.”

_“Agent Booth? This is Agent Olivia Dunham, I’m calling from inside the Medico Legal Lab at the Jeffersonian. I tried to talk to your friends here but it didn’t go as well as I’d hoped.”_

Booth laughed to himself. “Hodgins overreacted? You’ve just gotta know how to talk to ‘em.”

_“That was partly why I wanted to talk to you. I can’t give you all the details but I’d prefer it if we could work together on this. Whether I like it or not, you’re involved in this case and between the two of us we can probably figure this out faster.”_

He switched the phone from one ear to the other to avoid Brennan’s grasping hand. “What’s the plan, then?”

_“The crime scene has been cleared by hazmat? The bodies are still in place so we can move them to your scientists lab when we’ve seen everything in situ.”_

“We’re in the car, I’ll head there now. The squints’ll come back when there’s something interesting to play with.”

_“I’ll take your word on that.”_

Booth snapped his phone shut and turned right, towards the crime scene.

“You’ve got to know how to talk to them?”

Some days he just wanted to work alone.

* * *

 

Zack was feeling lost. His whole world had changed, literally overnight, and he didn't know what he was heading for. He'd almost fallen into Engineering and Anthropology, studying because that's what he was good at, and now he was going to be left with two unfinished doctorates?

He was looking out the window of Hodgins's car, just like he had when the first symptoms of the change started to affect him, but this time they'd put him in the back. Angela had even talked about getting him a booster seat. If this was permanent his life was going to change allot.

He huffed on the rain drizzled window and started drawing a simple electrical circuit. The side windows were almost totally obscured by the unseasonable rain. The houses and buildings on the other side of the street were just a trail of colours and lights.

They stopped at a red traffic light. Hodgins and Angela were having an argument, but Zack ignored it, preferring to watch the outside world.

They started forward. The lights on his side, 90 degrees to their right, looked unusually high. A truck?

But the lights were getting nearer.

He didn't realise why until they collided with the front of the Mini.

It was all over so quickly, the car spinning and coming to a halt resting against the curb.

Zack whimpered, the seat belt had cut into his neck, and undid the clasp at his hip. He crawled forward to check on the others.

"Oh, god." Angela raised a hand to her forehead.

"Angela?"

"Zack, are you okay?" She touched his face, eyes running over him to check for injuries.

"You should stay still." After a car crash it's important to keep people still to prevent further injuries, but if he was out of his seat then was he doing the wrong thing?

Hodgins wasn't moving.

Someone opened the door beside him. She was a woman, with blond hair and dark eyes.

She reached towards him, wrapped a hand round his upper arm, and leant into the car.

"Are you okay little guy? Come with me, I'll look after you."

He crawled across the chair and stepped out the door into the rain. "We need to call an ambulance. Hodgins is hurt." He pointed to where Jack was slumped over the wheel, but she just kept leading him away.

The woman opened the back door of the other car, a black 4x4 that looked new, and started trying to guide him in.

Zack pulled his arm out of her grip. "What are you doing? We need to get help."

Arms wrapped around him from behind, a hand over his mouth, lifting him up off the ground.

"Quiet, we'll get them help once we're on our way." She shoved his feel in through the door.

The man behind him dumped him on the seat and slammed the door. Both of them jumped into the front seats and the man put the car in reverse and skidded back, then round the little Mini and away.

Zack watched as his friends grew smaller in the back window, and felt tears prickling in his eyes.


	4. Chapter 3

The crime scene looked different since the Department of Homeland Security had gotten their hands on it. White plastic hallways and a circle of FBI vans obscuring the entrance completely.

Booth pulled up in almost exactly the same parking space as last time and a shiver ran down his spine. This was all just too weird. He and Bones had barely gotten out of the car when a tall blond woman in a dark suit and a frown approached them.

“Olivia Dunham, FBI. And you must be Seeley Booth.” She shook his hand with a firm grip.

“Where can I get a Hazmat suit?” Trust Bones to forget all the social niceties.

Agent Dunham smiled a controlled smile. “There are suits in one of the vans. We can grab them on our way.” She led them further into the warren of official vehicles to where two men were suiting up.

“This is Dr Walter Bishop and his son Peter, they’re our experts in this kind of case.”

“Ah! Olivia!” The older man came forward when he spotted them, frustrating the other man who seemed to be trying to do up his fathers suit. “And this must be one of the young men who disturbed the crime scene. They do teach you how to deal with evidence at the FBI academy, don’t they?”

Booth swept back his jacket and hooked his thumbs into his belt. “You know what, that’s just uncalled for. One of the squints trips over his own feat and now it’s my fault?”

“Don’t get worked up agent.” The young man patted his fathers back. “Arguing with my father is like trying to hold back the ocean. He’ll forget it in ten minutes anyway.”

The rest of the group got dressed in silence while Walter wandered over to entrance and chatted at the Agent stationed there.

* * *

 

When they were all geared up they headed in to the lab together. Booth couldn’t help but rest his right hand on the hilt of his gun. This place just gave him the creeps.

Dr. Bishop walked over to the woman on the floor. “You know, me and Belly never looked that deeply into de-aging. It was probably because we were relatively young at the time. I always believed it was possible.” He looked over at his son and laughed. “If I had it all to do over again, maybe it would have been higher up on the list. I do miss the shorter sexual refractory period. My, when I was an undergraduate-”

“You don’t need to finish that sentence, Walter. And this can’t be too much different from the creepy man-baby.” Peter was examining the labels on the glass jars.

“Similar goals, but reversing aging is a lot more complicated. I’ll need to take samples and get them back to my lab. If you could come with us, Agent Booth, I’ll need to take blood samples and maybe some spinal fluid.”

Bones whirled round. “You are not taking these remains! Booth, tell him!”

“Forget the remains, you are not coming anywhere near my spine!”

“Agent Dunham, I need to have access to my lab to be able to properly analyze these samples.”

“Why don’t you guys just work at the Jeffersonian?” Booth shrugged. “One lab is the same as another, right?”

“It makes sense, Walter,” Peter said, “Their lab has the advantage of not being 400 miles away, if nothing else.”

Walter shuffled and he fiddled with his see-through mask. “I guess that would work.” He suddenly became excited. “Now, lets have a look at the crime scene investigator!”

* * *

 

When Angela next opened her eyes she flinched away from hands reaching for her.

"Hello there Miss, can you here me?" He had on white latex gloves and a caring expression. "You've been in an accident. I need you to lie still while I put a neck brace on you. Can you tell me your name? Your friends name?"

"I'm Angela. These are..." Her mind blanked for a second as the paramedic fitted a plastic collar under her chin.

"These are Zach and Hogins." The man looked behind her and frowned.

"There's only one other passenger."

He gripped her when she went to turn, but she could see Jack in the seat beside her, still but definitely there. "Zach was behind me. He's only small."

"Angela, who's Zach? Is he your son?"

She didn't know what to say. She gasped and found she couldn't catch her breath. The paramedic started yelling, but it faded with the light.

* * *

Booth felt like one of those lab monkeys in the cages. He'd been escorted to the podium and the old guy stuck a needle in his arm. Each time he thought it was the last vile, there was another empty one.

Bones looked up from where she was laying out the victims skeletons. "Does this mean I'm going to get to look at your teeth?" She looked too excited about that.

"Did you examine the other subject? He's the more interesting case, no offence meant Agent Booth." The man in question rolled his eyes. "Changing someone's biological age would be hard enough, but the stresses caused by loosing that much body mass? It's fortuitous your young friend was in good physical condition. We know the other man wasn't so lucky."

Agent Dunham looked over the bodies. "I'm more interested in what happened to these people. I'm afraid I'm not very experienced working with Forensic Anthropologists, Dr Brennan. What can you find out from examining the victims?"

"Well, I'll know more once the flesh has bin removed. Usually that would be Zach's job, but I can do it myself."

The older Bishop pushed a piece of cotton wool against Booths inner elbow and drew out the needle. "You have a mass spectrometer here, yes?" He held one up horizontal and watched the bubble rock back and forth. "Blood always makes me think of the strawberry syrup we used to put on pancakes."

"It's over there." Bones pointed to one of the machines Booth had never had a name for and turned back to the body on the table. "Angela will be able to give you a sketch of their faces when she gets back, but from a preliminary examination I can tell you that The man who was sitting in the chair was Negroid, quite tall judging from the leg bones, and the other two were average height and Caucasoid. Combine that with the colour of the remaining hair and you might be able to start looking through missing persons reports." She turned one of the skulls to look at the top and frowned.

"Is something wrong, Dr Brennan?" Dunham stepped closer and peered at the desiccated scalp.

"This cranial sutures." She shifted some of the skin to get a better look. "They're obliterated to an extent I've rarely seen. It's not the most reliable age indicator, but I'd expect to see this in a man in his 80s or 90s."

"So he's just really old?" Booth asked.

Bones didn't answer. Instead she changed gloves and lifted one of the other skulls. "This one is the same. Usually I wouldn't theorise before we've collected all the evidence, but is it possible they weren't just making people appear younger? Since we've already shed all semblance of logic."

The old doctor shrugged. "That would make sense, if they only wanted to temporarily de-age someone."

Booth looked from one stranger to another. "Does that mean they could change us back?"

"Maybe, if we could find a sample. Of course, you might wind up like our friends on the table." Dr. Bishop gave him a beatific smile. "Don't look so worried Agent Booth! Even if we do nothing, you'll be back to yourself in a decade or so!"

Booth blinked at him once, twice, then decided to unpack that later. "Are we expecting the others back any time soon? It's just that I don't feel like being the only pin cushion here, and things would go a lot faster with more of us."

"It shouldn't be that hard to find out. Call Angela, though, not Hogins."

He pulled his phone out of his pocket and found her on the speed dial. "Don't worry, I've been called a government stooge enough for one day."

_Hello? This is Dr. Brewster, George Washington University Hospital. May I ask who's speaking?_


	5. Chapter 4

Zach woke up slowly.

  
He wasn’t moving. He remembered being moving. Scared.

  
He remembered the car pulling over and the woman pushing a smelly cloth over his face.

  
Zach opened his eyes. He was lying on his side on a bed that wasn’t his own, in a room that he didn’t recognise. There was a gag in his mouth and, a chill ran through him, he’d been changed into pajamas.

  
He rolled onto his back, elbows propping him up, and looked around. It looked like a hotel room. Lots of wall lamps but no ceiling light, weird little table runner at the end of the bed, on suite.

  
New situations weren’t Zach’s strength. Waking up in possible mortal peril seemed more of a Seeley Booth problem, from what Zach new of the man.

  
What would Seeley Booth do? He’d most likely get his hands free for a start. But how?

  
Zach pulled one wrist up and tried to wriggle his hand out of the ropes. It hurt, but the rope didn’t budge. He’d heard of people breaking their thumbs to get out of handcuffs in movies, but even if he could figure out how to do that he wasn’t sure he wanted to.

  
The click of the bathroom door opening made him still. A woman came out, with short, blond hair, prominent zygomatic arches, and a glass of water in her hand.

  
“Hey there.”

  
Zach bit down on the gag.

  
“I’m really sorry about this.” She came over and sat next to him on the bed. “If there was a way to do this without taking you we would have done it, but we can’t do this without you and we’re running out of time.”

  
She reached behind his head and undid the knot on the gag. “Do you want some water?” She put the glass to his lips.

  
He sipped it. Booth probably wouldn’t, but his mouth was dry.

  
“Why’ve you kidnapped me?”

  
She twisted the tumbler in her hands. “To put it simply, what’s happened to you is a miracle. And I need a miracle.”

  
Zach didn’t know how to react to that, so he didn’t. He stared at her eyes like his mother had taught him to do and waited for her to say something he could make sense of.

  
She put the cup down on the floor by the bed and turned to smile at him. “I know you don’t want to be here and I’m sorry about that, really I am. Is there anything you need? My husband’s getting you some clothes that fit and I can get you food? We can watch TV?”

  
“I want to go home. I want to go back to my friends.” Zach rolled onto his side so he didn’t have to look at her.

  
She brushed his hair away from his face. “I know.”

 

* * *

 

Olivia followed behind Agent Booth’s SUV, with Peter riding shotgun and Walter in the back. There hadn’t been much time to talk before they were split between two cars, but she did know that the second individual affected by this de-aging powder had been taken in an orchestrated attack.

  
This was going to make things much more complicated. If other people knew about the lab and what had been happening there, knew more than they did, then this case was so much more than an accidental exposure.

  
But why hadn’t these scientists been missed? And who sealed it up? Why didn’t anyone notice? A building manager? The estate agent that rented it out?

  
The car in front turned left into a hospital car park and Agent Dunham followed, parking alongside and following her new associates as they charged the front desk and got directions to the rooms of their two missing friends.

  
The first room was empty, and by the time they got to the second Dr. Brennan was practically running. She burst through the doors, then relaxed.

  
“Angela! What happened? Are you alright?”

  
The woman Olivia had only met once was sitting beside the bed. She’d obviously been crying, but she wasn’t any more. The curly haired man was quite badly bruised and his leg was in a cast, but he was awake.

“I didn’t even see them coming,” Hodgins said.

  
“We were just driving to the mall to get Zach something to wear. It was a green light and they hit us from the side. When I woke up he was gone.”

  
“We don’t even know if he was hurt.”

  
“I don’t understand it,” Dr. Brennan said, “Why would someone kidnap Zach?”

  
Olivia stepped forward. “Because of what happened to him and Agent Booth. They were obviously involved in this before we were, they need one of them for some reason, and Dr Addy was the more vulnerable. Until this case is resolved and we’ve dealt with the people behind it they’ll always be a threat. We need to get your colleague back, and we need to keep Agent Booth safe, and the best way we can do that is to find out who the people in the lab were, how they ended up there, and who knew about them.”

  
Agent Booth placed his hands on his hips. “I’m not going to go into hiding, Agent Dunham. We need all the help we can get.”

  
She couldn’t help but smile at a kindred spirit. “I didn’t think you would.”


End file.
